Emerging Contaminant Issues from an Ecological Perspective

ABSTRACT

An ultimate goal of toxic substance hydrology is to understand the ecological,
biological and human health implications of the toxic substances released
by human activities. It is known that contaminants can be toxic, but it
can be difficult to unambiguously identify their effects in specific circumstances.
Thus controversy and contentious debate can occur when contaminants are
suspected of causing ecological damage. Our knowledge of how contaminants
exert their effects on ecosystems has advanced in important ways in recent
years, and will change even more rapidly in the years ahead. These changes
have the potential to reduce some of the ambiguities in evaluations of the
implications of contamination. The new knowledge could create a demand for
changes in the basic approaches for contaminant management and changes in
the tools employed in those approaches. Changing approaches and tools will
be a challenge for existing institutions, including regulatory agencies
and the USGS. This paper attempts to summarize some of the broad "emerging
contaminant issues" that could result in improved management approaches.
These issues are relevant to both the newly discovered potential agents
for ecological damage (Thurman, 1999) and some of the traditional contaminants.